By Tammy Stables Battaglia

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

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The Belle Isle Conservancy supporters hope an event tonight puts a jolt in the island’s aquarium.

“Light up the Aquarium,” an evening of music, food and fun, is a fund-raiser aimed at bringing electric eels back to the Belle Isle Aquarium. The event is from 6 p.m. to midnight at the Belle Isle Aquarium and the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory.

“So many people have so much passion for the aquarium and island,” Belle Island Conservancy President Michele Hodges said Thursday. “So we need to give them (opportunities) to join with us and ensures Belle Isle remains integral to the cultural fabric of Detroit.”

In keeping with the electric theme, the Michigan Science Center is bringing three exhibits: the Van de Graaff Generator exhibit, which makes hair stand on end, and a 7-foot plasma tube and Tesla coil, which both glow with charged plasma. Bell ringers and a violinist will entertain before Spaceband plays electronic music from 9 p.m. to midnight.

Tickets are $50, and nearly 200 people are already signed up, Hodges said. Tickets will also be sold at the door. The conservancy hopes to raise about $20,000. This year, the aquarium has operated on about $30,000, staying open one day a week, she added.

The Conservancy is one of many that will be supporting the island as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources starts making improvements, Ron Olson, MDNR’s chief of parks and recreation, said Thursday.

“It’s absolutely crucial to have a partner like that,” Olson said.

A 90-day transition to Belle Isle becoming a state park began Nov. 12, when the Michigan Emergency Loan Board approved a 30-year state lease. Olson said the state will spend $2.5 million annually to run the park, plus more than $1 million to police it.